Pharmacies were separated from medicine way back in 1240 A.D. Today, Pharmacies and medicine are seen as two distinct specialties, largely as a result of an edict presented by Frederick II of Hohenstaufen in 1240 A.D. Frederick II was Emperor of Germany and King of Sicily. This completely separated the responsibilities of doctors and pharmacists and put professional regulations in place.
The first drug reference book in England was created in 1618. The book, Pharmacopoeia londinensis, was backed by King James I and allowed the Royal College of Physicians to create a master list of all known medications, their indications for use, and their effects. Only drugs that appeared on the list were about to be produced or sold. Their motivation behind creating this book? Gain control over apothecary shops in London by limiting what they could sell. Nine editions were ultimately published until the British Pharmacopoeia was published in 1864. This new volume combined the London, Dublin, and Edinburgh pharmacopeias.
Coca-Cola abd Dr. Pepper were invented by pharmacists. In 1886, pharmacist John S. Pemberton created Coca-Cola as a treatment for most common ailments. His bookkeeper, Frank Robinson, names the drink and writes it down in the loopy, flowing handwriting that became known as the brand’s logo. The drink was based on cocaine from the coca leaf and caffeinated extracts from a kola nut – hence the name, Coca-Cola. The cocaine was removed from the recipes in 1903. Pemberton sold his syrup to Atlanta soda fountains, and the rest is history. Dr. Pepper originated at Morrison’s Old Corner Drug Store. It was invented by a young pharmacist named Charles Alderton who sought out to create a syrup that smelled like a drugstore. Alderton loved the way the scents of the syrups at the soda fountain mixed together and wafter through the air and captured that scent in a drink. He tried different combinations of syrup, keeping a journal of his experiments until he landed on a combination that was just right.
American’s first licensed pharmacist opened a drugstore that provided traditional medicine as well as Voodoo remedies. Louisiana was the first star to require pharmacists to be licensed. A French immigrant named Louis Dufilho, Jr. became the first licensed pharmacist in the county in 1816. He opened his own pharmacy in 1823 in New Orleans, where he offered traditional medications as well as Voodoo remedies, opium, leeches, and a soda fountain.
Agatha Christie was a pharmacy technician and used her experiences as inspiration for her mysteries. Agatha Christie was not a formally trained pharmacologist, but she learned a lot about medicine as a volunteer nurse during World War I and again in World War II. She trained on the job and passed an exam to become today’s equivalent of an assistant pharmacist during the first World War. Poison was the weapon of choice in many of her books, and her experience tending to soldiers and witnessing countless worst-case scenarios gave her a lot to draw from in her writing career.